Any day we get new footage from a guy like Joe Cornish — the filmmaker behind 2011 genre classic Attack the Block and writer on Marvel’s Ant-Man — is a good day in our book. It’s with that knowledge that we present to you the first trailer for The Kid Who Would Be King, his take on the King Arthur mythos, updated for a modern audience, which Fox dropped earlier on Wednesday morning. It’s a bit less intense than some of his prior work, given that it’s intended for children (and not angry obese film nerds), but it shares the same DNA as his other work.
Take a look:
So, we’ve got some solid comedy here, and some fun and fascinating turns by two of Britain’s premier actors: Rebecca Ferguson (fresh off of her work in Mission Impossible: Fallout) and Sir Patrick Stewart (soon to be seen once again as Captain Jean-Luc Picard). We hope it brings the type of character-driven spectacle that Cornish managed to bring to Attack the Block, and though, we lament the loss of some of his more intense projects — say, the Star Trek movie he never wound up directing — we’re excited to see what he does here.
Here’s a synopsis:
“Old school magic meets the modern world in the epic adventure ‘The Kid Who Would Be King.’ Alex (Ashbourne Serkis) thinks he’s just another nobody, until he stumbles upon the mythical Sword in the Stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Sir Patrick Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be.”
The Kid Who Would Be King hits theaters on January 25.
Featured photo by Kerry Brown via 20th Century Fox.